As the Telangana agitation is seeing many ups and downs since many months, one question lingers in the minds of many. Why was Hyderabad made the capital city of Andhra Pradesh rather than Vijayawada?

In the 1950's Hyderabad and Vijayawada were almost of the same size and population. Unlike Hyderabad, Vijayawada was well connected to both the North and South India through rail route since it has been a junction between North and South India. It was the business capital of Andhra Pradesh. Also it is almost equidistant from all regions of Andhra Pradesh like Srikakulam, Rayalaseema, north Telangana and also south Telangana.

But when the people wanted to make it the capital of Andhra Pradesh the then Congress leaders like Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy opposed it vehemently.

Reason? At that time and even now, the Congress party is dominated by Reddys but the Cummunist parties are dominated by Kammas and Kapus (though Kapus shifted to the Congress party after the Ranga incident).

Since Vijayawada has a huge population of Kammas and Kapus and very less Reddys, the Congress leaders didn't want a Kamma-Kapu dominated area to become the capital.

So opposed were they for making Vijayawada the capital, that they even went to the extent of running the government under tents in Kurnool while leaving the luxury of buildings in Vijayawada.

After facing many difficulties in Kurnool (which didn't have even a large building at that time) there were widespread demands to make Vijayawada the capital again. However the Congress leaders selected Hyderabad over Vijayawada since the surrounding areas of Hyderabad are well populated by Reddys.

So that was the reason for selecting Hyderabad as the capital. But now the grand vision of leaders like Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy maybe lost since the leaders there now want separate state with Hyderabad for themselves after Hyderabad has been developed by people of all the three regions through decades.

Date : 12/03/2010. News by Newsofap.com